Dark, Darker,
by Arjen
Summary: BtVS,Noir. Black Sunrise series, part 2. While Dawn tries to learn and deal with the changes forced upon her during Halloween, enemies, both old and new, come to Hellmouth.
1. Grounded

**Title: ****Dark, Darker, …****   
Author: Arjen**  
**Length: About 22.000 words**  
**Summary: While Dawn tries to learn and deal with the changes forced upon her during Halloween, enemies, both old and new, come to Hellmouth.  
Pairings: Nothing that isn't canon.**  
**Rating: PG-13.  
Crossover: Noir**  
**Disclaimer: All characters are property of Mutant Enemy, ADV films and whoever else wants to lay claim to them. Everything that I thought up is made using their property so I can't really claim that either.**  
**Feedback: Preferably constructive criticism, tell me what I've done right and wrong and I'll be happy. Flames I consider as written by five years old who according to that ridiculous rating system aren't allowed to read this.**

**In case you are unfamiliar with Noir, there is a primer for it in the story before this one, The Day After, which of course can be found on this site as well.**

**Background: Dawn was created early and the monks weren't stupid enough to lead Glory directly to her. During Halloween '97 she was possessed by Kirika from Noir. Afterwards she retained the memories of this assassin and had gained knowledge of the supernatural. The next day she found out who it was that had caused this to happen and she gained an idea of what it would do to her. This story starts about a week and a half after The Day After. Like before, the rest of Sunnydale is blissfully unaware of her changed status.**  
  
**A line indicates a change of POV**

**Part 1: Grounded**

It wasn't easy, acting as if nothing was wrong with her. While she didn't think anyone had noticed the terrible headaches she suffered, hiding the rest of the newest complications to her life had proven to be more difficult. Well, not that difficult, Dawn amended herself. After all, while it had taken her almost two weeks, Buffy now believed there wasn't anything wrong with her. But even achieving that hadn't been easy and there had been several close calls, like that time she had helped her mother in the kitchen.

She still didn't completely understand why the woman had freaked out like that though, it wasn't as if anything had been about to happen. And a lot of people were able to handle a knife like that, at least she had seen people do so on TV. But it was a mother's prerogative to worry and as it showed Dawn that hers still loved her she wasn't about to complain.

Once again staring out of the window she uttered a soft sigh, a lot more had changed than she had originally believed. Luckily she had at least somehow managed not to alienate her real friends yet, although they had started questioning her strange behavior. Other changes had a greater direct influence however, like the martial arts classes. She could feel a slight smile appearing on her face as she remembered her first lesson.

Once on the mat she hadn't exhibited the customary nervousness the other students were probably used to from the new people. Some of them hadn't appreciated that and during the entire lesson they had decided to show the uppity girl exactly what she had signed up for. The slight smile on her face widened into a broad grin as she recalled exactly how they had learned that even without the proper physical capabilities she had been more then able to take down some half-trained children. It had been strangely satisfying to see how after the first two had been shown the error of their ways the others had suddenly all backed up.

Maybe backed up a little too far though, while she had had several classes now she hadn't made a single new friend. And that was something that should have happened even with everyone knowing about Buffy and they didn't! Looking at the girl reflected in the glass she could see how the smile had disappeared and that almost emotionless look had once again started to appear in her eyes. A look that over the past week had started to appear more and more often.

That look more or less told the entire story of what was happening to her. The merging had started and it had actually taken her a while to discover that. While she had knowingly tapped into the knowledge of skills that were necessary for improving her physical condition it had come as a shock when it had carried over to other areas. Dawn knew that by now she spoke more languages than probably anyone else in Sunnydale, that had always been one of the things Kirika had been known for in the series, but what had surprised her was the way she could now learn new ones.

In hindsight it was obvious that Altena would have taught her the best way to pick up a new language but when, without thinking about it, she had started using those lessons in her attempts to decipher the languages needed to read certain books, it had scared her. The speed with which she was suddenly able to learn and remember every detail of the grammar in those languages could barely be called natural. And of course, that couldn't have been all.

This time the sigh was louder as she wondered what other little things she would find out about in the near future. Hey, who knows, she might actually find out Kirika's real name if those memories proved to be accessible as well.

"Miss Summers!"

How dare that man? Turning her head forward she glared at her teacher who had dared to disturb her while she had been thinking. As the man actually took a step back in shock at her furious gaze she suddenly realized the rest of the class was looking at her. The knowledge that she had let her herself slip overrode the satisfaction she had at first felt when Mister Fowler had taken that step. Knowing she had to placate her math teacher before she was to suffer any disciplinary actions she made her eyes look as innocent as possible and asked him what he wanted.

"For you to pay attention would be a nice start."

"I was paying attention." Okay, she wasn't but did that really matter? It was only math and she could remember solving for more difficult problems than the one currently on the blackboard.

"How come you didn't reply when I called your name the first five times then?"

He had called before and she hadn't heard him? That wasn't good, she had always known what was going around her and never actually not heard someone call her name. "Oh, I'm sorry?"

"Not good enough, I think it would be best if you did some extra work for the next class. That way you won't be behind the rest of the class." Behind? She was light-years ahead of these dimwits! Gritting her teeth as she heard him tell her what detention-work he expected her to do she swore that she would show him why it was a stupid idea to piss her off.

* * *

Jane watched her best friend as she sat completely still in her seat. Completely still that is, except for her eyes that seemed to spit fire. She had no idea what had been going on with Dawn these last two weeks but the brunette's behavior had started to worry her. One moment she would be her normal, cheerful self while chattering about that friend of her sister that seemed to fill most of her thoughts nowadays and the next she would be totally different. It was hard to say exactly what the change was but it was obvious to her that, in those moments, someone else was staring out of her friend's eyes. 

She didn't know much about mental disorders and had no idea if it was possible for anyone to get multiple personalities so suddenly but that was what it reminded her of. And the other personalities weren't nearly as nice as the Dawn she had known for the last year. She had been glancing at Dawn every so often during this, admittedly boring, class and had noticed how the other girl was looking out of the window. The window however had reflected the other's face and the things she could see in it were bad, very bad.

There had still been some of the old Dawn recognizable in the face but she wasn't nearly as pronounced as even a week earlier. When she had first noticed her friend's behavior she had tried to identify the different personalities. There had been the exuberant, cheerful Dawn who was maybe a little too fond of teasing her sister but that hadn't been anything new. Then she had discovered the sad and quiet girl, she had no idea why that one was so sad and the only time she had dared to ask it had been shrugged off before the exuberant Dawn had come back.

And finally there had been the scary one, the girl who she had immediately recognized as someone she didn't want to be angry with her. No matter how good a friend she was of Dawn, the emotionless expression in that one's eyes had shown her how that friendship might not always be important enough. But now there was this, where the scary Dawn had been, well scary, this one was plainly terrifying and she wondered where this new personality had suddenly come from. And if it meant that even more would be coming.

She would have to talk with Sara again about this new development. Their earlier talks had at least proven that both of them were worried about their friend and both knew they would do everything they could in order to help Dawn. Not that they knew how to do that but the two of them would act as the supportive friends they were and one day they'd find out a way to help her.

Talking things over with Dawn's family had been something they had considered but decided against. While they probably already knew something was wrong, Dawn wouldn't like it if the two of them were the ones to tell them if they didn't. If Dawn's mother or sister started the talking she would speak but otherwise she'd keep her mouth shut.

Despite their best attempts however they hadn't so far come up with anything else that might be useful. And if her friend's behavior kept getting worse, Jane wasn't certain she would be able to deal with it for long. If Dawn would actually turn those hateful eyes against her she was pretty certain she couldn't handle it. Hah, she snorted, not even Mister Fowler had been able to handle that. All this however, meant that for now all she could do was sit here, worry about her friend and wait until an opportunity presented itself.

* * *

Still fuming about the unfair way she had been treated by her teachers Dawn stormed home, not even bothering to acknowledge the goodbyes of her friends. After that insignificant twit Fowler had given her extra work the other teachers had actually had the gall to do the same! All of them! She ought to go and kill them, unprofessional or not she didn't care about being paid this time. 

She immediately stopped in the middle of the walkway, had she actually thought that? Blinking furiously she considered her actions of the day. Looking at her behavior from a new perspective she realized the teachers had been right to punish her, no matter how unfair she thought it to be. But why had she been reacting so extreme? Thinking of her behavior didn't show her why it had happened, one moment she had been doing her normal thinking thing and the next…

Was it another part of the merging? But that didn't make any sense, none at all. Furrowing her brow she wondered what exactly could be the cause of this strange behavior. Kirika had never been like that in either of her personalities, she had always kept her emotions in control. Why then was she starting to feel as if the slightest thing could set her off?

Standing there all alone while the cold wind was busy disarranging her hair, Dawn considered everything that she could think of that might actually be responsible for her behavior. For example, why was she getting so angry when all those insignificant people didn't give her the respect she was due? While they were, of course, in the wrong about that she didn't understand why she was reacting so strongly to it.

Shaking her head she decided to continue on her way home instead of trying to figure it out here. She might as well think about it at the same time she was dealing with her schoolwork, it wasn't as if she actually needed to concentrate on that.

She stopped again as a terrifying thought hit her. What if she couldn't figure out what to do? She might need to go and ask someone for advice but who could she go to? Who might help without trying to ask questions she had no intention of answering?

* * *

"Dawn?" 

"Can we talk?"

Jane was surprised by the visit of her friend, who she knew was supposed to be at her martial arts club, but didn't let that deter her from inviting the girl in. "Sure, come in."

Leading Dawn to her room she wondered why her friend was here instead of where she was supposed to be, was she actually going to receive an explanation of the strange behavior?

"So, why are you here? I thought that you had to go and do your fighting thing?"

"I can't." Huh? She wasn't making a lot of sense was she?

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I'm afraid." And for the first time in weeks Jane could see behind the masks her friend had adopted. What she saw however, was even worse than she could have imagined even in her wildest dreams. Even alone the heart-wrenching cry for help that shone out of the girl's eyes would have been enough to melt even the coldest heart.

Getting out of her chair she joined the other girl on the bed and put her arms around her. Drawing Dawn's head down to her shoulder, which immediately started to feel damp, she couldn't help but wonder. Oh god, this was even worse than she had at first thought. What could possibly be happening with her friend?

"Ssshh, relax. I'm here to help you." Making comforting noises as she caressed her friend's head seemed to be the only thing she could do. At least until the girl had finished crying, once that had happened there was going to be talking. And this time Dawn wouldn't get away without at least telling her something of use.

. . . .

"So, are you going to tell me why exactly you ruined my favorite shirt?" Jane asked, trying to clear the air a little.

"That's not your favorite shirt."

"Yes it is, don't you think I know what my own favorite shirt is?"

"Three weeks ago you told me that blue one was you favorite." Dawn tried to convince her.

While Jane was happy the brunette was starting to come out of her depression she couldn't just let this go. "No, you're talking about my other favorite shirt."

"Other favorite shirt?" Dawn asked incredulously. "How can you have more than one favorite shirt?"

"Why can't you?"

"Don't turn the question around. Besides, favorite implies better than all the others, not better than most of the others." Her friend stressed the word 'all' but Jane didn't care.

"Not with me, it doesn't. If I want to have more than one favorite shirt I'll have more than one favorite shirt and there's no way you can convince me otherwise." To underline her statement she put on her most stubborn expression, maybe this was a little silly but not even her best friend would be allowed to dictate the way she ran her life, or wardrobe.

A smile cracked the teary face of her friend and she once more wondered what it was that had so changed the other. "Silly cow."

Silly cow? Well, she hadn't changed that much. "I'm not silly." Shit, she just realized what she had said.

"I'm terribly sorry, miss cow."

"Oh you, you. Argh! I can't find a good word to describe you." Okay, this was not the time to start something like this. From past experience she knew both of them could keep the silly statements up for hours and she wanted to know what was going on. So taking a deep breath she repeated her earlier question. "But enough of that. You came here for a reason. So tell me, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure how to begin." It was strange, she had never really considered Dawn small and the past weeks she had seemed even taller than before but looking at her now there was only a tiny and vulnerable girl.

"You said you were afraid to go do your fighting thing, why is that?"

"I'm afraid I'll hurt someone." It came out barely louder than a whisper and Jane almost doubted she had heard it correctly. Dawn was afraid of hurting someone? She who had started about a week ago was afraid she'd hurt someone? She knew her friend had not been doing the usual once a week thing but she doubted it was normal for anyone to believe after only a couple of lessons that she was better then those who had been there longer. Unless…

"You're afraid you'll hurt someone outside of the lessons with what you've learned?"

"No, I'm afraid I'll hurt the ones there."

"But why? I mean they're all better than you are, aren't they?"

Dawn shook her head when she answered that question. "No, I know my technique is better. It's just that I can't do most things."

Okay, that made a lot of sense. NOT! "You've kinda lost me there."

"Like I said, it's hard to explain. I mean it's…" She trailed of for a moment before picking up again. "You know those jokes you sometimes hear in movies about how many ways they know how to kill people with one finger?"

"Yeah…" Where was she going with this?

"Eight."

She had to blink at that. "What do you mean eight?"

"That's how many I know." WOW! Holy shit! "But physically I'm not capable of doing any."

"Are you serious?" Even as the other nodded in confirmation she couldn't really wrap her mind around this new knowledge. "But how?"

"I don't really know how to explain it."

"You've already said that, why don't you try?" Oops, as she noticed the sudden flash of anger in her friend's face Jane understood she had said the wrong thing. Dawn was in sharing mode now and she really shouldn't mess that up by getting the angry personality to come forward. For a moment she had forgotten about that, but now that she remembered she figured it might actually be a symptom of her friend's problems. "Sorry, forget I said that. Okay, now don't get angry at me for asking this but does it have anything to do with how you've been behaving lately?"

Dawn flinched at that. "You've noticed that?"

"You scared Mister Fowler half to death today. How do you think I could possibly miss that?"

Another sigh. "That is indeed my problem. I'm losing my temper all the time now, it's almost as if I can't help it. It wasn't that bad at first you know. I mostly just went silent and stuff, which didn't really matter since you and Sara weren't there. But now this…"

"The angry thing…"

"Yeah. It doesn't make any sense but I don't know what to do."

Finally she knew the reason her friend had come and she couldn't help but feel some pride in herself that it was her she had come to, instead of a member of her family. "So you thought you'd come to the Amazing Jane with all the answers."

"Something like that yes." Was said with a tiny smile. It was strange, since Dawn had arrived here she had shown more emotions then in the entire week before. Did this mean that progress was being made?

"Okay then, let's figure something out." Getting up from the bed she started pacing. "What do we know? One, you are experiencing sudden bouts of anger. Two, this anger isn't directed at anyone in particular. And three, you are capable of actually using that anger in a way that people would probably not approve of. That's right isn't it?"

"Yes."

"PMS?"

"What? No! I think I'd go to my mother if it was something like that Jane." Well, it was worth a shot. She didn't think it was the answer but well, you never know.

"Okay then, let's think. Who do we know that has the same characteristics?"

"Buffy?"

"Your sister? Nah, if I'm gonna be honest I can understand most of her anger. Especially the part directed at you since you never fail to give her a good excuse. And besides I don't think that burning down the gym would help you get rid of the anger."

"Don't drag that up, okay? She actually explained to me why she did it and she had a very good reason." Dawn defending her sister? Was this some kind of alternate reality or something? And what kind of good reason could there possibly be for burning down the gym? Had it been the school itself she would have understood, but the gym? Dawn appeared to know what she was going to ask and preempted the question. "No, I'm not gonna tell you why she did it. It's not my story to tell."

"Okay, okay. I wasn't even going to ask." The look she received told her exactly how likely Dawn thought that was but she didn't let it deter her. "But we were working on you problem and now that I think about it, I realize we were looking at it from the wrong direction."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's obvious that we're not gonna find the solution if we look for people who have all those characteristics. We need to look at people who have only the third and somehow manage to control the other two."

"What, you know someone like that?"

Oh yeah, that was kind of a problem. But wait. "Not personally, but isn't that what television is for?"

"What do you mean?" Huh, her voice was quivering a little. What could be so bad about television?

"Well, I remember watching quite some movies and series where the hero was capable of killing people but could also stop himself from doing so."

"But that's not real."

"That doesn't matter." She waved that tiny obstacle away, she was on a roll here. "The theory behind it is sound. Now let's think, who do we know that is capable of murder and control? Oh, I know! Kirika." That got a strange reaction. It was almost as if Dawn suddenly loosed another of her personalities.

"No!" The expressionless face told her. "Kirika isn't capable of dealing with this, try someone else."

"But why? I mean she is perfect for a…"

"I said no!" The anger blazing out of Dawn's eyes told her in no uncertain terms that she shouldn't continue this.

"Okay, okay. We'll use someone else." But who? She rather doubted trying anyone else from Noir would be a good thing. Considering that Kirika had always been Dawn's favorite character. "Leon!"

"What?"

"Leon, from the Professional. You know, the no women no kids guy."

"Oh him, yeah he might work." Don't sound to excited Dawn! Sheesh, it was almost as if she didn't really care anymore.

"Yeah, but how does he control himself?" That was still the question, wasn't it?

"He drinks milk?"

"Nah, that isn't it." She spent some time thinking before she suddenly had the answer. "The plant!"

"What about the plant? You want me to get a plant?"

"No silly, I said it was the theory that was important. He used the plant to ground himself."

"Ground himself? Did you come up with that theory yourself?"

Hey, there was no need to be insulting here. "Yes I did. Why? Don't you like it? Because I think it kinda works, actually I think it's a great theory and since I came up with it to help you, you should be happy with it as well."

"Perhaps, but what could I possibly use to ground myself? I rather doubt a plant is going to work."

"Duh, you need something that means something to you and I've never really thought of you as a plant person. Knowing you, the plant would probably die of thirst within a week."

"I'm not that bad am I?" Yes you are Dawn, but I'm not gonna say that since I'm trying to help you here.

The switch of subjects wasn't the smoothest and she was pretty certain Dawn noticed it, but that didn't matter. "But the question remains, what could you use to ground yourself?" Musing she considered every character she had ever seen but the most obvious person she could think of was Kirika who had used the watch in that manner. Saying so however caused another burst of anger.

"I told you not to use Kirika as an example!"

"But it works, can't you see? She is a prime example, when the melody of that watch plays…"

"I said no!" It was obvious Dawn was having trouble with her temper again but she visibly tried to calm herself down. "Look, thanks for the help. I really appreciate it but if I don't go now I'm gonna do something I'd rather not."

"Oh, I'll talk to you tomorrow then?" She really didn't want to see the other girl go, especially since this conversation had not only failed to provide the answers she had been looking for but actually created more questions.

"Sure, look I just need some time alone right now okay? I'll let myself out."

"Oh, okay, bye then." Despondently she looked at the retreating back of her best friend and was once again overcome with the feeling of helplessness that had marked the past week. Why couldn't she help her?

No, that had to wait until later. She now had new things to tell Sara even if most of them were rather obscure. She waited until she heard the door close downstairs before she picked up her telephone and dialed the number of her other best friend. After all, if she could have more than one favorite shirt she could have more than one best friend, couldn't she?

* * *

"DAMN IT!" She shouted out to tell the world it was being unfair to her. Why couldn't she have a normal life like everyone else? She'd even settle for no knowledge about the supernatural and a normal boyfriend, preferably Xander. But no, Dawn Summers wasn't meant to be normal, no, she had to get possessed by an assassin and kill a little boy while doing so. 

Why? Why? Why was it her life that had to be screwed up like this? Realizing she was now royally pissed off, and in need of some relieve from this, she turned around, took the knife she still carried out from under her jacket and with all the strength in her frail body flung it at an innocent tree.

She was half-surprised to see it quivering at the exact same spot she had aimed for. She had practiced throwing the knife ever since Halloween and yet this was the first time it actually ended up exactly where she had wanted it to. Anger overcame her again however and she stalked to the tree where she grabbed the heft and tore the knife out of the tree.

There was a real lack of possibilities to get rid of your anger in this miserable town. Maybe she should look around and see if she could spot a vampire? That was certainly a target she could take her anger out on. Snorting at her own ridiculous thoughts she decided to continue heading for home. Hadn't she just been telling Jane how she wasn't physically capable of doing things? She probably couldn't even take on an adult with at least some self-defense training, what made her think she would be able to deal with a vampire?

There were other things she needed to consider however. Although she had managed to curb most of her anger while she had still been with Jane the episodes seemed to be getting worse all the time. Despite the unfortunate examples her friend had used however, Jane had been right about the need for her to ground herself. But what could she possibly use to do so? There wasn't anything that she could actually come up with that was important enough to her for it to stop her from going berserk.

. . . .

_Even when I was in a crowd, I was always alone.  
Ernest Hemmingway_

It was strange to see that written down in her diary. And luckily it wasn't really true either. When she wrote it down she had been in a rather depressed mood and for some reason she couldn't remember had actually put it in her public diary. Not that Buffy could possibly understand the importance behind it, after all she doubted even Jane or Sara would have understood exactly what she meant by it, but still…

To her the meaning was crystal clear of course. It had been both a reminder of what she had once been and a warning of what she was starting to become again. As far as grounding goes she was pretty certain that good friends ranked high, although from what happened when she was with Jane she now realized that even they might not be enough. So in an attempt to think of something that would be enough she had once again remained awake during the night. Even though she knew the lack of sleep would probably shorten her already dangerously tiny fuse.

Looking up at the clock she noticed it was still only four o'clock. Which meant there was a lot of time left for her to come up with something. And that was a very good thing. While she had been afraid of what would happen during her training, she also realized that was nothing compared to the fallout of something similar taking place at school. Oh yes, she was pretty certain that were she to lose her temper there it would be spectacular.

And, no matter how that might look to anyone who saw it, she doubted that she would be happy with the results. No, there was nothing to it but think of something that could ground her. Thinking back to the conversation with Jane she suddenly realized that the answer had been staring her in the face all night long. With a smile on her face she looked for the small item that she was sure would help her.

Having found it she held it to her chest for a moment before tracing the pattern with her fingers in something as close to reverence as she could come. Yes, this would do. This would definitely do and she owed Jane an apology for her behavior. That could wait however and in the moonlight she added another short message to her diary.

_But with the right friends, even being alone is not always a hardship.   
Dawn Summers_

Well, it wasn't as great a sentence as the other one but it did say what she felt. Of course, being alone and having friends wasn't quite compatible but that was just an unimportant little detail.

* * *

"Miss Summers?" Oh no, not again. Close to despair Jane felt the need to burrow her head in her hands. She had been late today, having overslept slightly, so she hadn't been able to talk to Dawn before this first class. And like the days before the girl had been distracted by whatever it was that she saw when she was looking through the window like that. Which naturally drew the attention of the teacher to her. 

And with a sinking heart Jane knew what the result to that was, after all it had been shown often enough yesterday. She turned to look at her friend and indeed, the brunette was flashing her angry eyes at yet another teacher. Dawn no, you'll get into trouble if you keep this up. She wanted to shout it but knew that would not only be useless but most likely get the both of them into even more trouble. Turning her head back to the teacher Jane could see how the woman had taken a step back, just like Mister Fowler yesterday.

Dawn seemed to have noticed as well and a predatory grin started to form on her lips, it was almost as if she could smell a weak prey. Jane was certain Dawn would say or do something that would earn her the eternal enmity from the entire teaching staff. Which, of course, couldn't be a good thing if you still had to deal with them on a daily basis.

But her friend didn't seem to care about that and while time almost seemed to slow down she could see Dawn open her mouth. Horror gripped her and she couldn't stop a whimpering "No." from escaping her own mouth. She didn't think anyone could have heard it but for a moment Dawn turned to her and when that happened there was a flash of understanding in her eyes. For some reason she then put a hand in the pocket of her jeans and calmed down almost instantly.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Collins. What was your question?"

Oh my god! Was this the same Dawn that moments before seemed to be preparing to practically eat the teacher alive? This could mean only one thing, she had found something to ground herself and it was something that actually worked.

. . . .

"Come on, what did you find?"

"What are you talking about Jane?" Sara wanted to know.

"It's obvious she found something that grounds her, didn't you Dawn?" The last part once more directed at her other best friend.

"Yes, I found something."

"I knew it! Am I great, or am I great?"

"You are someone whose ego shouldn't be allowed in this state." Sara told her.

"You know I have to agree with Sara there, sometimes I almost think your head swells up to a size that is far from healthy. And here I was thinking about apologizing for last night, but I now realize that would only make it worse."

Looking between her two friends she tried to enjoy the joke but wasn't really capable of doing so. "Ha ha. Very funny girls, now Dawnie spill."

"Oh, alright." And she watched the other girl take something out of her pocket.

"You have got to be kidding me." Taking the small item in her own hands she turned it around and even tried to open it. "It doesn't open."

"No, it's the prop from Halloween."

By now Sara too had realized exactly what their friend had used. "You know, from all the things I had imagined you might use, that watch wasn't on the list."

"Yeah, especially after the way you almost bit my head of last night when I even mentioned it." Returning the fake watch she couldn't help but wonder why this item would actually be able to help her friend.

* * *

In order to pass the time until her friends joined her Dawn was playing a little with the miraculous watch. No matter how confused her emotions had gotten today, somehow this little item had been able to get her back onto her feet and into the world of sane people. Well, not entirely sane perhaps but hey, sanity was overrated anyway. 

"Summers." Oh great, him again. From where she was sitting she looked up at the bully that for some inexplicable reason, only known to his tiny brain, had decided that today it was her turn to serve as his victim.

"Mike." She said flatly. "What do you want?"

"You're in my spot."

"No, I'm not. You never sit here, now go away and leave me in peace." The offhanded way she said it was meant to imply to the boy that she didn't consider him important enough to actually pay attention to him.

Unfortunately that tiny brain of his didn't quite get that. "It is my spot now, go away or I'll make you go away."

Damn, she really didn't want to do this but neither did she have any intention of being bullied by someone who wasn't even worthy of cleaning her shoes. But in order to calm herself down she rubbed her fingers over the watch and leaned back against the tree with her eyes closed. "Listen Mikey boy. I don't care what you want or think you can do. You will go now and leave me in peace."

No answer was forthcoming after that but neither could she hear the sound of retreating footsteps. Oh well, you can't have everything. Maybe he'd figure out what she told him before the others arrived so they could at least have a pleasant lunch. It always smelled so nice here under this tree and with good friends, who could want more? She allowed a smile to grace her face as she thought of how good today had been for her. A smile that disappeared at the same time the watch did.

"What's this?" Mike held the sacred item up in wonder. "It doesn't really look like much, but I think I'll keep it anyway."

"Give. It. Back." The tone of her voice would have clued in anyone with an IQ of over 20 but it seemed as if she had overrated his intelligence after all.

"Nah, I don't know what it's supposed to be but it is quite pretty. Hey, there are naked girls on it, what do you want with naked girls Summers?"

"I told you to give it back. NOW!" By now she was standing as well, and although the older boy towered over her, there was no fear inside her, only anger.

"Nope, I'll be going now and I'll take it with me."

Very well. She had given him fair warning, now it was time to do it the other way. Her foot shot out, hitting Mike on the side of his upper leg, exactly at the place she knew would cripple him for several minutes. A red haze started clouding her vision and when he started falling she spun around and planted her other foot in his stomach. She then grabbed the arm that was still holding the watch and broke it in a practiced move, not even noticing the screams that called attention to the fight.

. . . .

"I can't believe you did that!" Her mother said, angrier than she could actually remember ever having seen her.

"It was self-defense!" Dawn tried to protest walking behind the woman while they made their way to the car.

"Self-defense? The boy had his arm broken in two places, a busted nose, bruised ribs and who knows what else! That's not self-defense."

"But."

"No buts, I don't know who started the fight and I don't care. You were the one that kept going when he was already lying on the ground."

This wasn't fair, nobody had believed her version of what had happened. Like she would have attacked the moron out of choice!

"But mom, he tried to take something from me and when I asked him to give it back he wouldn't do it."

"Didn't I just say that I didn't care how or why it started? You should have known better than to act as you did. It's all because of that martial arts training isn't it?"

"No mom, I'm learning how to control myself there. I learned all this from television." Well, that wasn't exactly a lie was it?

"Fine, then I won't forbid you from going to those classes but instead you won't be allowed to watch television."

"What?"

"You heard me. You're grounded for a month. You're not allowed to invite any friends, you won't be allowed to go to any friends, no television, nothing."

"But mom, what will I do then?"

"If you're so worried about that now, why weren't you before you got expelled? Even if, as you said, for only two weeks."

Yeah, and after that another month of detention. Somehow that wasn't exactly how she had planned to spend the rest of this year. "But."

"No. There will be no discussion over this, and if you insist on trying I'll take your phone away as well."

Argh! Why couldn't life ever be fair? Realizing that once again there wouldn't be an answer to that question, she got into the car to be transported to what for the coming month would amount to little more than a prison.

------------------------------

Post-fic comments: Hope you enjoyed it, the next part "Target: Ethan Rayne" will follow in the usual two days.


	2. Target: Ethan Rayne

**Part 2: Target: Ethan Rayne**

One, two, three… "Dawn? What are you doing here? You're grounded." Right on schedule, Dawn thought as she entered Sunnydale Highschool Library. It was good to see that no matter what happened, Buffy remained her same predictable self. Not that she had expected anything else from her sister of course.

"Mom's at work and I was getting bored." As if she had any intention of letting something as silly as being grounded interfere with her life. And since she thought it important to learn about the nightlife in Sunnydale, where else would she go?

"You snuck out?"

"Well, walked actually. There wasn't anyone around to stop me, was there?" Dawn decided to annoy her sister a little more and conjured up her most innocent smile which she then sent into Buffy's direction. Then for the first time since entering she took a good look around the library which obviously had been the site of a fight. "Uh… What happened here?"

"I thought I heard the voice of someone I actually like." Cordelia said as she came walking out of the office. "Dawn! Good to see you again, what are you doing here?"

"Trying to find out what happened."

"Oh, there's something going on with Giles but he won't tell us what it is." The brunette answered, obviously happy to be out of the office.

"Cordelia, go back and help Xander." Buffy then interrupted before the girl was able to say more.

"You know, that really wasn't working well. Maybe I should be doing something else." Cordelia said before she noticed the way Buffy was looking at her. "On the other hand, maybe I will be able to find something there."

Wearing a bemused expression on her face her sister kept looking at Cordelia until the girl had finally reentered the office. Once that had happened however she turned back to Dawn. "Now, I want you to go home. We're busy here and you can't help with the fighting anyway."

"Oh come on, that's not fair. I can help look things up like the others are doing. Please? Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

As she then saw Buffy sigh Dawn felt the thrill of success. "Fine, I'll tell you what happened but once that's done I want you to go home. I really don't want mom to be mad at me as well."

"Fine, whatever. Tell me." As she saw Buffy's eyes narrow in suspicion she mentally cursed herself. There was nothing wrong with knowing she was better than everyone else but she really shouldn't show that so openly to her sister. Maybe another innocent smile would stop Buffy from thinking wrong thoughts.

It didn't really seem to work but as Buffy began to tell her story anyway it was obvious her sister didn't think it important enough to pursue. Like always Buffy wasn't able to give any good descriptions of what had happened but with a little imagination she should still be able to figure out the events that had actually taken place. So she listened carefully to the incoherent tale until she heard a certain name.

"Ethan Rayne? The one from the costume shop?" Dawn was aware she hadn't managed to hide the anger and hatred in her voice but this time she didn't care. There was only one person on this entire planet that she hated this much. And that was the man who had used that cursed magic on her. The man who had given her the memories of Kirika Yumura. The man who was the reason that she now spent half of her days with a pounding headache against which no medicine seemed to help.

Not that she understood why the merging of her different personalities caused headaches, after all the brain itself didn't have any pain receptors. No! Stay focused. No thinking about things besides the man who was supposed to die. The man who had, however indirectly, caused her to get both detention and being grounded.

"Yes, that one. Apparently he's an old friend of Giles or something, we're not certain about all of that actually. Giles had told him to leave town after the Halloween thing but he didn't. And today there was this dead guy that attacked Ethan so I had to protect him and in the end he ran away again and I couldn't find him." Okay, it took a moment for her to understand what had happened but she could understand why Buffy was acting a little strange. If Giles was somehow involved with all this, and from listening to the tale she figured he wasn't exactly the good guy, Buffy was probably either a little confused or disappointed.

"So what happened to the dead guy?" Don't let Buffy notice that the soon to be late Ethan Rayne is all you're thinking about. Distract her from that information.

"Oh, he turned into some kind of slimy puddle and now Giles is taking care of Ms Calendar."

Willow then walked up to the two of them while looking in a book. "I think I found something Buffy."

"You did? Good." The Slayer then turned back to her and more or less shooed Dawn out of the library. While she would normally have taken exception to being treated like that by anyone, let alone her sister, she didn't really mind it now. After all, there was someone she needed to have a… conversation with.

Walking out of the school she could feel the hatred and anger in her body coalescing and filling her with a purpose. For the past couple of days, each time that had happened she had reached for the fake watch she kept in her pocket. The watch that was meant to ground her into reality and which had steadily become the only thing that could indeed stop her from going on a path of destruction. This time however she had no intention of stopping the dreadful purpose that was taking over her body. So, ignoring the watch that seemed to be burning inside her pocket, she turned in the direction of her target.

* * *

Listening to Willow explain what Eyghon really was didn't prevent Xander from wondering why Dawn had left already. It was strange but in the two weeks since Buffy had told everyone the girl had a crush on him he had hardly seen her. Well, he thought with a slight smile, it wasn't that strange since it was obvious even to him that she was avoiding him but still.

"I still don't get what this has to do with Giles." Buffy spoke up after hearing the explanation. A statement he couldn't agree more with, after all, why would this Eyghon be after Giles or for that matter Ethan Rayne? Willow's answer was even more disturbing than he had thought possible however.

"I don't know about Giles, but ancient sects used to induce possession for bacchanals and, and orgies."

That was something he really couldn't let go, no matter how much he wanted it to. "Okay! Giles and orgies in the same sentence. I coulda lived without that one."

Luckily for her however, Buffy seemed to be capable of not thinking about that disturbing image and while Xander was still busy trying to dispel it from his mind she was obviously wondering if there was still any danger left. It was only when the others started talking about it that he realized what had been bugging him since Willow had mentioned it.

"No, no one dead." Buffy said before he finished her sentence.

"But someone unconscious." How could they have missed it? It was so obvious now that he thought about it. Xander could see realization hit the others and Buffy moved to the phone in the office.

While she was calling Giles he decided to ask Willow about Dawn. "Wills? Do you know why Dawn left again so soon? I don't think she was here for more then ten minutes."

"Oh, she's grounded. So she probably went home."

"Grounded?" He couldn't really remember her being grounded before so she must have done something bad.

"Yeah, she ah, beat someone up." His friend answered.

Okay, had he really heard that? That needed confirmation because he couldn't possibly have heard that she beat someone up.

"No really, at school. From what Buffy told me she got expelled for a couple of weeks and got about a month worth of detention and her mother decided to ground her for that same period."

"But… This is Dawn we're talking about. How can she beat someone up? Because I really can't believe she'd pick on someone smaller than her and well, the bigger people… She isn't exactly Mrs. Bruce Lee."

"I don't really know the details but from what I heard it was some kind of bully that took something from her."

"And why wouldn't you believe she could do that?" Cordelia interrupted. "I mean, she kicked Larry unconscious during Halloween."

"She did what?" He asked before he remembered the conversation he'd had with Larry the day after Halloween. "Oh yeah, I remember now. He told me about that although he didn't know it was Dawn."

"Larry talked to you?" Both girls asked incredulously.

"Well, it was the day after Halloween and we had something in common. We had both gotten acquainted with Cordy's knee." Damn, just thinking about it almost made it hurt again.

"Oh that." The brunette said with a shrug, obviously not thinking it very important. "Both of you deserved it."

While he knew she might be right about it that didn't mean he wouldn't protest. But the moment he opened his mouth Buffy came walking back to them. "There's no answer at Ms. Calendar's, and Giles' phone is out of order. I'm gonna go over there."

* * *

Ethan was pacing while thinking things over. Life was not good at the moment. Here he was, stuck in an American town and it was almost as if everyone was after him. Hah, who was he trying to kid? Everybody was after him. Why not go to the Hellmouth and dispense a little chaos so you can annoy Ripper? Yes, why not? Because it caused you a lot of problems, you moron!

Lesser minds might have been afraid of the Slayer but he was Ethan Rayne, no American teenager could outsmart him, especially this particular American teenager. During his visit to the library it became obvious that Ripper was the only one there with something approaching half a brain. The redhead had some potential as well but it was obvious that most of that had been blunted by the ridiculous schooling system here.

But his real problem didn't come from that direction anyway. This time it was Eyghon that was messing up his life. If only that fool Randall had managed to retain control none of this would have happened. Now he was in trouble and even if nobody else appeared to have noticed, it was obvious to him that after Philip's body had been destroyed the demon had once again jumped into a fresh body.

Not even Ripper seemed to have noticed, he had been so concerned over that Jenny bird he hadn't thought about what it meant that she was unconscious while Eyghon was looking for a new host. Which meant that by now Rupert was most likely dead and the demon would come looking for him soon. Rubbing the tattoo on his left arm he wondered how he could get out of this alive. The tattoo worked as a beacon for the demon which meant it would find him no matter where he'd run.

Unless… An idea began to form in his mind. Maybe he could get rid of two problems at the same time, he was pretty sure the Slayer would come here again, probably in order to protect him. And once she was here all he needed to do was draw the tattoo on her body, remove it from his own and Eyghon would take care of her. Leaving him alone and in no more danger from either of them. Yes, that would be the perfect solution to this mess. Of course he would have to leave town immediately afterwards but that was something he intended to do anyway. Now, all that was needed was for the stupid child to actually arrive.

The waiting was the hardest thing to do until, after what seemed to be an eternity but was actually sooner then he had expected, the bell rang indicating someone had entered the store. He immediately went there to greet the Slayer but when he entered he noticed it wasn't the Slayer but some other, even younger, child.

"Who are you?"

The guileless child who for some strange reason was wearing cheap rubber gloves looked at him and asked. "Are you Ethan Rayne?"

"Yes, but I ask again. Who are you?" He couldn't imagine who this girl was or why she was here. Somehow she seemed to be familiar but since in the days before Halloween he had probably seen practically every child that lived in this miserable town that didn't exactly mean much.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Dawn. Dawn Summers. Buffy sent me here." Summers? This was the Slayer's little sister? She seemed to be such an innocent little girl but it was his life that was on the line. He stopped for a moment to search his soul, was he capable of what amounted to the cold-blooded murder of a child if it meant he would survive? The soul-searching didn't last long since the answer was obvious. His life or that of some bloody stupid American, like there could be any doubt.

While smiling as sincerely as possible at the little child who would take his place he asked her why she was send.

"Oh, Buffy thought you needed protection from that demon-thingie? I forgot its name, but anyway she thought it was best if you came back to the library where she could keep you safe."

"Really? And why didn't she come herself?"

"Oh, she couldn't come. I think she was going over to Giles to protect him so she asked me to come and get you." Well, if the way this girl talked was any indication the Slayer might actually the smart one in the family after all. That at least assuaged him from the last vestige of guilt about what was going to happen to her.

"Very well. I'll need to get some things first, if you want you can come with me and have a seat."

"Thank you, that's very kind." She smiled back at him.

When she remained standing however it was obvious she wouldn't go through the door before him. Well, that meant he couldn't knock her out from behind but while he might not have been able to handle a Slayer, a little girl wouldn't pose any trouble. Now all he needed to do was keep up appearances.

"So, you look rather familiar. Have you been here before?"

"Yes, actually I have. I came with some friends of mine for our costume." The girl answered from behind him.

"Ah, I take you don't have any hard feelings from that? Who did you go as anyway?"

Instead of receiving an answer he suddenly felt a sharp pain when what could only be a knife pierced his right lung and he fell to the ground screaming.

* * *

"Damn! I missed." Pissed beyond measure Dawn walked forward to the pitiful mass of screaming human. She hadn't missed that tree a couple of days ago so why did she miss now that it was important? "Bloody weak body."

Continuing to curse her bad aim she stomped on the hand reaching for the knife she had thrown in Ethan's back, breaking several fingers, before doing the same with his knees and elbows. Well, even if it meant this wasn't a clean kill she was at least able to fend some of her frustration on the person who deserved it the most.

The target continued screaming and the pitch became higher each time she broke something else. A feral smile formed on her lips as she stepped back to enjoy the view of her handiwork. He hadn't received any mortal wounds yet but it was obvious he wasn't going to be doing anything else anytime soon. Suddenly she stopped smiling, she had never done anything like this before. While she wasn't always able to kill anyone as fast as possible that didn't mean she extended it like this either.

No, this was wrong. While the target lying on the ground did indeed represent everything she hated that didn't mean she should be doing this. She started trembling a little, never before had she been capable of this kind of cruelty. Oh she had no problems killing anyone and, unlike Leon in that movie Jane had mentioned, she didn't even care if her target was a man, woman or child but never had she imagined herself torturing someone to death.

This was the problem with these merging personalities she understood in a moment of clarity. She couldn't control herself like she could before, right now she was a mix of all three personalities and, unless she was very mistaken, more specifically a mix of the worst characteristics of each person.

But how could she stop this from overwhelming her? Inside her mind she could hear the seducing whispers telling her the one way she could be certain no emotions bothered her. Whispers that told her of a time not long ago when no emotions had bothered her. It was so incredibly tempting to accept but she also remembered the events that took place the last time she had allowed that to happen. A sudden louder whimper broke her concentration and she looked at Ethan as he once more tried to reach the knife sticking out of his back. Hatred started to fill her up again and in that single moment her decision was made.

* * *

"I've got the solution right here.'To kill a demon cut off its head.'" Cordelia spoke up.

"Oh, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah! We'll, uh, find Ms. Calendar, then we'll decapitate her. Hey! She'll be the first headless computer teacher in school. You think anybody'll notice?" It was rather obvious that wasn't going to work, wasn't it? But that hadn't kept the aggravating girl from making the comment. And there was no doubt in Xander's mind that this was going to spawn another comment from her.

"Do you know what you need, Xander, besides a year's supply of acne cream? A brain." See? He was right, but this time around he wasn't going to just take it so he stood up.

"That's it! Twelve years of you and I'm snappin'! I don't care if you're a girl or not, I'm throwin' down! Come on!"

"Oh yeah, like I'm gonna be afraid of you. Remember the last time, loser? That was when you were actually capable of fighting and I've seen you fight without being a soldier, so don't think I can't take you!" As the brunette came stalking towards him he actually had to shake himself to get rid of a thought that had somehow managed to worm its way into his head. Not that the shaking helped a lot since the thought returned almost immediately. But the thought was right too, she was pretty when she was angry and not only when she was angry.

No Xander, that is the path that leads to damnation! You are not in any way or form interested in Cordelia's body. A distraction from dangerous thoughts was needed so he provided himself with one. "Yeah? Well, give it your best shot then."

The glint in her eyes told him exactly what best shot she was going to give him and since he had seen her in action on Ethan no more then two hours before Xander knew what to do. His hands started moving down to protect that most important of body parts when their fight was interrupted.

"HEY! We don't have time for this! Our friends are in trouble! Now, we have to put our heads together and, and get them out of it! And if you two aren't with me a hundred and ten percent, then get the hell out of my library!" Willow in action, he wasn't quite sure whether to be happy she had saved that most important part of him or scared because she was so angry. A good look at her furious face told him the answer however.

Cordelia seemed to have come to the same conclusion as she meekly said. "We're sorry."

Not wanting to be outdone by her in the apology department he added his own five cents. "We'll be good."

Willow just nodded as if she had expected them to react like that to her outburst, although how she could have known it was something he couldn't understand, especially since he couldn't remember her ever behaving quite like that. She then sat down and brought his mind back to what he should be thinking about. "Okay. Now, we've done the research. We just have to figure out how to use it."

Think Xander, think. "Oh, hey! Why don't we find another dead body for the demon to jump into!" That should help them save Ms Calendar.

His plan appeared to be approved by Cordelia who then added her own idea at where they could get a corpse. "Yes! At the cemetery."

"Well, that won't kill the demon." Willow ruined the plan. He hadn't really thought that far ahead, but then, that's what Willow was here for wasn't she? "It'll only give it a change of scenery. Oh. Oh! Oh, I've got it! I've got it!"

As the redhead then ran for the phone Xander was pretty certain his friend had once again solved the mystery and he proudly turned to the other girl who he told. "She's good." He then followed Willow so he too could find out what her latest brainchild was.

* * *

Despite the excruciating pain he tried once more to reach the knife sticking out of his back. The little hellion had momentarily stopped torturing him and with a little luck she might actually be out of the room. Bloody hell, how many broken bones did he have anyway?

Maybe if he actually managed to get the knife out of his back he might be able to drag himself to some of his spell-components. Even the sulfuric acid he had standing ready for the removal of his own tattoo might help here. This child, if you could actually call her child, definitely deserved to be destroyed by Eyghon and when that happened he would smile. Hah! Once he was able to walk again he would come back to this blasted town one last time so he could dance on her grave!

Yes, yes! He actually had it. Exultation flooded his body, momentarily dispelling the pain as he held the heft of the knife. Another wave of agony coursed through him however as his hand was kicked away. Unfortunately, this time around the pain wasn't only centered on his hand but the knife had been jarred as well, more than doubling the pain.

He could taste fresh blood entering his mouth and he lifted his head when he noticed the girl had moved in front of him. Spitting out the blood Ethan mentally cursed the fact that he was so weakened he couldn't even hit her with it. "What are you?" The words came out even more difficult than he had feared, underlining the fact that he was hurt badly. But at least he had the comforting knowledge this girl was one of the so-called good guys which meant that she wasn't supposed to kill him.

"In a way you could say that I'm your creation." She answered him. Looking at the emotionless gaze shining out from the slitted eyes he suddenly understood he had underestimated her, badly.

"You're not just another stupid American are you?"

This actually managed to inspire the ghost of a smile on the face before him. "No, while Dawn wasn't exactly dumb in her own right, you made a rather big mistake when you sold her the costume she wanted."

"What do you mean?" More blood came out of his mouth as he had to cough, once more jarring every little part of his body that hurt.

"Like I said, you created me. The only thing that you should care about is that I am the best assassin currently alive and you took me away from my partner." The last part was delivered in such a hateful voice it caused him to shiver in fright. The girl was indeed correct, he had made a rather big mistake in selling that costume. If he actually got the chance to do something like that again he'd have to make sure he didn't sell costumes with that kind of background.

But there was something more important than even the question of why she was still able to access the personality of her costume. He had believed that she wouldn't kill him because she was one of the good guys. Now he wasn't so sure about that anymore, if she was telling the truth about being an assassin there was no doubt in his mind that he wouldn't survive this meeting.

"What are you going to do to me?"

"I am in three minds on that actually." Three minds? Well, no matter what she said about not being a typical American the lack of knowledge about sayings indicated otherwise. "Part of me wants to kill you as soon as possible and leave before Buffy gets here. Then there's the part of me that wants to cut out your tongue out and leave you bleeding to death so that Buffy can be the one to see you die. But that's only a tiny part since it would risk her finding out about me and she probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture anyway. And finally there's the part that wants to drag you away from here to find someplace where I can continue doing what I've been doing until now."

While the words themselves were chilling, it was the way she actually said it that bothered Ethan the most. There was absolutely no emotion in her voice and he wasn't used to that. It just wasn't natural, when you said something like that you had to sound anticipatory or you should at least have some madness shading your voice. You shouldn't sound as if you were discussing your bloody dinner plans!

There was no doubt in his mind that she noticed his terror but even now there was nothing in her face that showed how she was feeling about this. A poker face like that could probably earn her a lot of money in card games. He had to blink at that strange thought and had he not been so terrified and angry he might have actually spend some time trying to figure out where it had come from.

"It doesn't matter what the other minds think though, I'm in control now, not Dawn." She then bent over until he could feel her hot breath as she whispered in his ear. "But you should be happy that you didn't try any magic against me, had that happened I don't think I could have stopped myself."

The girl then stood up, stepped over his body and he could feel her tearing the knife non to gently out of his back. She then took hold of his hair and wrenched his head back. As the cold metal of the knife then parted the skin of his throat Ethan sent a mental prayer of thanks to whatever deity had stopped her from choosing one of the other options.

* * *

Stepping back from the corpse and cleaning the knife Kirika wondered what she should do now. It was obvious to her that she wouldn't be able to remain in charge of the body for long. Undoubtedly the Dawn personality would try to regain control now that this was taken care of and as the original personality she was indeed capable of taking the body back. But that was for now, once the merging was over a whole new personality would be in control and together with her weaker self she would most likely have more influence on the new her than Dawn had.

A pang of discomfort flitted through her mind at that thought. Somehow that just didn't feel right but she was honest enough with herself to realize that didn't really matter to her. On the other hand, that emotion reminded her of something that she definitely did not like. Although the target hadn't been able to notice it, her mask of having no emotions had been exactly that, a mask, one that had actually slipped for a moment. Where before she had always been able to purge all emotions from her body this time around she had only controlled them nearly perfect.

No doubt that had been caused by the merging but she wasn't happy with the fact that the effect wasn't only one way as she had half expected it to be. It should have only been the Dawn personality that was inflicted with these problems, not her. Just look at the way she had been talking to the target, she had never talked to a target while she was killing it. She frowned, now she was doing it again. Only this time she was rambling to herself instead of a target and she couldn't honestly say that was an improvement.

Brutally suppressing every thought that wasn't supposed to be there Kirika once more turned to her present situation. Buffy would probably arrive within maybe fifteen minutes and she had no wish to meet the blonde at this time. Let alone while standing over the corpse of the person she had undoubtedly come to protect.

Now, this was a store so there should be things here she could use. The costumes were of course useless but the money that had been paid for them wasn't. That was a first as well, and this time she couldn't stop herself from letting a smile grace her face, being paid by the person she had killed. Even if it was after the fact.

Checking the corpse's pockets she found his wallet and looked inside. A one-way ticket from Los Angeles to London, well it was a good thing she had found him before he'd managed to leave. It would have been a lot harder to kill him if he'd been on the other side of the world. Creditcard, running her fingers over the card she could feel the protruding numbers even through the gloves. No, she couldn't risk it. No matter how tempting it was to use this it would undoubtedly lead the police to her and she couldn't use that.

Taking the money out of the wallet she then returned to the store in order to check the counter. Once she had all the money from there as well Kirika returned to the living room and looked around to see if there was anything that she might be able to use. Unfortunately it looked as if the fool had been so trusting in magic abilities he didn't have any other weapons.

"Ethan? Ethan? Giles told me everything. Look, it's coming for you." Ah, Buffy had arrived, which meant she would need to leave. Calmly walking to the backdoor she opened it and stepped out before Buffy even had a chance to discover the body.

Walking home she counted the money she now had, it was a decent amount but while she was now able to pay for the things she needed there was still no way to get them. Around here nobody would sell weapons to twelve year old girls. So she needed to go somewhere they wouldn't mind that kind of thing, which meant she would probably need to go shop in one of the less than pleasant neighborhoods of Los Angeles. And guess what? She couldn't go there because she was grounded. Contemplating that problem she threw the bloody gloves in a garbage can and added a new pair to her mental shopping list.

While walking past the park a sudden wave of emotions shocked her and Kirika realized she was losing control. She barely had time to put away the money before with a dizzying feeling Dawn once more was in control of her own body. It took her a moment or two to orient herself but once she had done so she remembered exactly what she had done. And this time she didn't have any excuse like being possessed. She barely had time to reach the cover of the trees before she fell to her knees and threw up.

* * *

Following Angel the three of them ran into the shop and not finding anything there continued into the house from where sounds of a fight were coming. When he reached the living room Xander couldn't help but stop and gape at the, there was no other word for it, massacred body. Next to him he heard both Willow and Cordelia utter sounds of disgust at the sight but he could think of only one thing. He had seen only one other body in his entire life that had been meant to suffer like this, the vampire that had been stabbed, shot and left out to be sunburned during Halloween.

Before he could contemplate the similarities between the two however the fighting that was going on tore his attention back to the here and how. As Angel was holding Ms Calendar, no the demon, he could see Buffy still on the ground where she had been thrown while Giles was moving to get up. As the Brit then tried to go to the ongoing fight however he was stopped by Willow.

"He's killing her!"

"No! Trust me! This is gonna work!" Willow answered the panicking man, while Xander suddenly realized that a new factor had appeared, one they had not thought of but that could be a danger to the plan.

"Cordelia, help me move the body."

The girl looked at him as if he was crazy. "What are you talking about Harris? You want me to move a dead guy? Are you totally insane?"

After checking to see if the demon was still distracted he leaned close enough so he could actually smell her perfume even over the stench of blood, down Xander! You weren't gonna think of her like that remember? "That is indeed a dead body and do you remember what Eyghon does with dead bodies?"

"Oh yeah." Cordelia seemed to realize what he was driving at. "We've got to move the body. Xander, help me."

Slightly baffled at how she had managed to turn the tables Xander took one of Ethan's legs while Cordelia did the same with the other leg and together they dragged him away from the ongoing fight.

Noticing how Angel continued choking the possessed woman they started pulling harder until finally Ms Calendar's body fell to the ground and Angel was thrown into the wall and started shaking. Knowing there was no more need for them to keep dragging he let go of the leg and walked to where Willow was now helping Buffy get up. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Giles helping Ms. Calendar back to her feet but his attention was focused on the ongoing internal struggle.

The fight between the two demons was strangely visible in Angel's face. Everything that happened between the two beings possessing him seemed to be displayed somehow and Xander couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Not too sorry of course, especially since he wasn't entirely certain which demon he wanted to win, but still... When Eyghon was then thrown out of the vampire's body Xander felt a momentary pang of doubt. Did it actually need to be able to see the dead body or could it possess Ethan despite the fact that they had moved him?

That question was soon answered as the corpse behind him moved to stand up. "Oh shit."

"No! He, he wasn't supposed to be here." Willow stuttered, dismayed that her plan hadn't worked the way it should.

Angel was still barely able to move but Xander noticed with relief that Buffy was already on the move and had somehow managed to lay her hands on a sturdy table leg. Standing before the weakened demon she didn't hesitate and with a meaty sound the wooden pole connected with its head, destroying the already fragile neck even more. A couple more hits followed until the pole broke and Ethan's head was dangling from only a little bit of skin.

As the body dissolved Eyghon once again wanted to try again for Angel's body but weak as it was didn't even make it there before crumbling into ashes.

"Was that what you wanted to happen, Wills?" A slightly out of breath Buffy asked.

"Yeah, more or less. Except that I didn't count on there being another dead body."

"Well, that did come as a bit of a surprise didn't it. Did the demon kill him?" Xander wanted to know.

"No." Buffy shook her head. "He was dead when I arrived and Eyghon didn't show up until I was already here."

"Who was it then?"

"Beats me."

"You know, the way he died kinda reminded me of that vampire during Halloween."

"What vampire?" Giles asked him, looking up from where he had been helping Ms. Calendar.

"When we were looking for Dawn we found this vampire who had knives sticking out of his throat and was riddled with bullets. And then he had been left out on the street to wait for the sunrise."

"Oh, quite. And why wasn't I informed about this before?"

"Ehm." Looking at Buffy he wondered what she would have said, and hey, he wasn't the only one who had been there. "I kinda forgot."

"So did I." Buffy admitted. "And besides, it wasn't exactly a time I want to think about. Being a brainless twit doesn't inspire great memories."

Giles then looked at Willow who held up her hands defensively. "I wasn't there. This is the first time I've heard about it."

A deep sigh went out of the Brit as he admitted defeat and let it go. "Well, I guess there's someone new on the Hellmouth then and while this person appears to be on our side his methods aren't quite what I'd like to see."

"It could have just been someone who didn't like his costume." Xander offered as a possibility. As everyone then gave him an ugly look for joking about something like that he tried to defend himself. "Oh come on, you were all thinking it. I mean there must have been someone with a costume that wasn't as nice as the ones we wore."

* * *

Once more she was staring out of the window of her room. It was actually starting to become a habit, well not exactly starting since she had been doing it before she even met Mireille. No! Stop that! Slipping her hand in her pocket she took out the fake silver watch that until today had done such a good job at keeping her from going over the edge.

No, that wasn't exactly fair either. What happened today wasn't the watch's fault. She had consciously chosen not to make use of its calming influence. And for a first job it hadn't gone that bad, well except for the part where she almost tortured the target to death but even there the important word was almost. She had managed to stop herself from going completely berserk even while faced with the man that took her away from Mireille.

The one thing that did bother her however was how easy it had been for the other personality to take over. Nothing she had read so far had indicated that possibility and she doubted this would be the last time something like it happened. There had to be a way for her to remain in control however and she swore to herself she would do what she could to find it.

All in all however, she had to admit that the day had been a good one. The information she had managed to wheedle out of her sister about the day's events had cheered her up considerably. Even now she felt a tiny glimmer of joy locked inside her dark heart. Nobody would be investigating the death of Ethan Rayne because the authorities would never see a body.

While dissolving the body had never been something she'd thought of before, considering it would make verification too hard for her clients, it was rather useful in this case. Before she forgot to do so, she took out her secret diary in order to tear out the last page. Except for the knife it was the last bit of evidence that might point in her direction and unlike that she could do without a page that had only three words written on it.

Once the evidence had been destroyed however she felt a little empty. For the past weeks the need for revenge on Ethan had been the driving force behind her actions and now that was gone. Having no real plan about what to do didn't really approve with her but on the other hand it might be useful to be able to get some more training in before the next situation turned up. After all, she was pretty sure that Buffy would get herself into some serious trouble sooner or later.

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Post-fic comments: Once again I hope you enjoyed it and like always I'd appreciate a review. The next part called 'Competition' will arrive in two days.


	3. Competition

**Part 3: Competition**

_Dawn's master plan for 1997._

Okay, Dawn admitted to herself, maybe November was a little late for coming up with a plan but being grounded was getting to her.

_1. Get Xander interested in me.  
2. Make sure I'm no longer grounded.  
3. Get Xander interested in me.  
4. Learn the fighting thing._

Now she hesitated, should she write down another _Get Xander interested in me_ or not?

_5. Get Xander as a boyfriend._

Yes, that would work. Progress was the name of the game. Now then, what else should she make sure to do? Her main goal for the year had already been taken care of last Saturday and wasn't something she should write down in this diary anyway. Christmas wasn't all that far away so maybe she should start thinking about that as well.

Being good probably wouldn't cut it anymore but maybe she could get a very nice gift for her mother. As a sort of peace offering to stop her from being angry at her sweet and innocent youngest daughter. That might actually be a good step to deal with point 2 as well.

Except of course that by then she would no longer be grounded and if she'd go and buy a present before then, her mother would know that she didn't actually stay at home most of the time. Decisions, decisions. Well, it might at least be useful for the next time something like this happened, write it down Dawn.

_6. Get a great Christmas present for mom.  
7. Get a gag-gift for Buffy, preferably something messy._

Hah, that would teach Buffy not to read her diary and the way she'd probably be terrified of every gift during Christmas would hopefully make up for not actually being able to do anything.

"Dawn!"

Shutting the diary she walked downstairs to where her mother was waiting. "Yeah?"

"I'm leaving now. I want you to be good and keep your promise about the grounding."

"Yes mom, I promise I will be as strict about being grounded as I've been so far." And that just happened to be a promise she planned on keeping. After all, she no more planned to stay cooped up inside now than she had before.

"Okay honey, I'll call you in the evenings when I've got time. Say goodbye to Buffy for me and I'll see you again on Friday."

"Okay mom, bye." Dawn answered, kissing her mother goodbye as the woman left for her buying trip.

* * *

"Spike, come dance?" Drusilla held out her hand while she asked this.

"Give us some peace, would you? Can't you see I'm working?" Why was he angry? She only wanted him to dance with her. She didn't like it when he was angry with her. Pulling back her hand she knew she was showing that on her face and it got the expected result.

"Oh, I'm sorry, kitten. It's just this manuscript. Supposed to hold your cure, but it reads like gibberish. E-even Dalton here, the big brain, he can't make heads or tails of it." What did she care if that stupid minion couldn't figure it out? If Spike didn't want to dance with her he could at least make her well again.

All this anger was giving her a headache. "I... I, I need to change Miss Edith." She started walking towards the doll when the pain got worse and she had to hold her head in her hands in order to try and stop the pain. Spike immediately came to help her when he noticed this.

"Oh, forgive me! You know I can't stand to see you like this. We're runnin' out of time. It's that bloody Slayer! Whenever I turn around she's muckin' up the works." Yes, the Slayer. It was always the Slayer but Miss Edith said that Spike would soon find a solution for her as well.

"Shh. Shh. You'll make it right. I know." She really did, because Miss Edith said that a change was coming to the Hellmouth and what better change could there be than her being strong again and the Slayer gone? But for that she needed to get better and if that was in the book she would find out how to deal with it. As Spike got up she picked a card from the deck she had placed for this occasion.

"Well. Come on, now. Enlighten me." Spike said as he walked to the minion. What was the minion's name again?

"Uh, well, it looks like Latin, but it's not. I-I'm not even sure it's, it's a language, actually, I..." Not a language? What could it be then?

"Then MAKE IT A LANGUAGE! Isn't that what a transcriber does?!"

"Well, not exactly..."

Spike grabbed him in order to get more information out of him but she was pretty sure that wasn't the way. "I want the cure."

"Don't..." She told him.

"Why not? Some people find pain very inspirational."

"He can't help you. Not without... the key." She pointed at the card that had shown her this information.

"The key? You mean this book is in some kind of code?"

"Yeah."

She drew another card in order to find out more about the key and once again the meaning was clear.

"Is that where we'll find this key?" Spike asked her while pointing at the mausoleum."

"Yeah!"

"I'll send the boys, pronto!"

"Now will you dance?" Say yes Spike, because she really wanted to dance.

"I'll dance with you, pet. On the Slayer's grave!" Yes, that would be a perfect spot.

. . . .

As she was waving her hand over the pretty cross Drusilla smiled.

"This is it then?" Spike asked, sounding a little anxious.

She couldn't hide her pleasure at this find and had no intention of doing so anyway. "It hums. I can hear it."

"Once you're well again, we'll have a coronation down Main Street, and invite everyone, and drink for seven days and seven nights." Spike always said the nicest things to her, it would be so nice. She'd have to make sure Miss Edith had a nice dress to wear though.

"What about the Slayer? She almost blew the whole thing for us. She's trouble." The minion said, she still couldn't remember his name. Oh, that wasn't important anyway. She knew what needed to be done to the Slayer and she was sure that Spike did as well.

"You don't say? Trouble?!" She could hear him start pacing behind her but she was still looking at the pretty cross that would make her strong again. "She's the gnat in my ear! The gristle in my teeth! She's the bloody thorn in my BLOODY SIDE!"

As he then kicked the table however she tore her attention away from the pretty cross on its pretty pillow. "Spike?"

"We gotta do something. We'll never complete your cure with that bitch breathing down our necks. I need to bring in the big guns. They'll take care of her once and for all." See? She knew he would know what to do. Miss Edith had already told her they would come, although Miss Edith was scared about something as well.

"Big guns?" Oh, the minion didn't understand yet. When she was strong again it might be best if she got rid of him, it wouldn't do if he didn't understand what they were talking about. Oh, that cross was really pretty. Why did something as pretty as that have to hurt if she touched it? There had been a time she could touch a pretty cross like that without it hurting but that was before Daddy came.

"The Order of Teraka." Yes Spike, we'll call on the order of Teraka and they'll deal with the Slayer.

"The bounty hunters?!"

Ignoring the minion's frantic question she started dealing the cards to see which ones would come. A Cyclops, that one wasn't good enough and would die first. A centipede, the bugman, he would be there at the end. And a panther, the last of them to reveal itself.

"They're coming to my party. Three of them."

"Uh, yes, but... The Order of Teraka, I mean... isn't that overkill?" The minion still didn't understand.

"No, I think it's just enough kill." Spike did understand. But suddenly it was as if she heard something. Spike seemed to notice her behavior and asked about it. "Dru? What is it?"

"Someone else will come."

"Someone else? Who?" Instead of immediately answering though she turned back to her deck of cards and flipped another one, a skeleton carrying a scythe.

"Death." She looked up at Spike, unable to disguise the horror in her face. "The Green Lady will come, but she'll be too late for my party."

"The Green Lady? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"The Green Lady with the black hands. Miss Edith says she'll never stop killing and that she hates magic."

"Really? And who is this Green Lady?"

"Miss Edith doesn't know. Nobody knows who the Green Lady is until she kills them." That last part did manage to get through to Spike and she saw a flicker of fear run through his eyes as well.

"But you said she'll be late for the party?"

"Yes, she'll arrive after the party. She can't come before."

"Well then, that means she is a problem for later and by then we'll both be able to deal with her."

* * *

"So Giles is sure that the vampire who stole his book is connected to the one you slayed last night? Or is it slew?" Willow asked.

"Both are correct, and, yes, I'm sure. Du Lac was both a, a... a theologian and a mathematician. This article describes an invention of his, which he called 'The Du Lac Cross'." Giles answered her while he came down out of the racks.

What a ridiculous name, couldn't he have thought of something better? Xander decided to make his opinion about that known. "So, why go to all the trouble of inventing something, and then giving it a weak name like that? I mean, I'da gone with 'The Cross-o-matic', or, uh, 'The Amazing Mr. Cross'."

Neither Buffy, Willow or Giles seemed to think it funny but a short giggle came from further in the library.

"Dawn! I thought you promised mom you wouldn't take advantage of mom's absence?" Buffy shouted at her sister who then showed herself.

"No I didn't. I promised I wouldn't do anything I hadn't done during the first days of being grounded. And since I didn't stay at home then, I haven't broken my promise."

Okay, in some twisted way that was probably a logical explanation, although he doubted something like that would hold up in court. "Ehm, Dawn? I don't think it works like that."

"Why not?"

You know, that was actually a good question but luckily he didn't need to answer it since Buffy decided it was time to get rid of her sister. "Because I'll tell mom."

"No you won't because then I'd tell her about the Slayer thing."

"Y-you would tell Mrs. Summers about that just to spare yourself?" Giles asked incredulously.

"You've never seen mom angry have you?" The pitying look the girl threw at Giles told him exactly what it meant to have Mrs. Summers angry at you. "Trust me, I'd do anything to keep her from getting even more angry with me."

"Except do as she told you to." Buffy muttered with a sullen look on her face. Despite his own reservations about the situation Xander couldn't help but be impressed by the way Dawn had outmaneuvered her sister.

"But you were talking about 'The Amazing Mr. Cross'. Don't let me stop you from doing so."

"Quite." A still shocked Giles answered the little girl, before he launched into his explanation. "The cross was more than a mere symbol, it was used to understand certain mystical texts, to, uh, decipher hidden meanings and so forth." He then handed the magazine he had been carrying to Willow so she could look in it.

"So you're saying these vampires went to all this hassle for your basic decoder ring?"

"Uh, actually, yes, I, I suppose I am." The Brit told Buffy.

Willow who naturally couldn't stop from reading the text in front of her then spoke up with the information she had found there. "According to this, Du Lac destroyed every cross except the one buried with him."

"Why destroy your own work?"

"Perhaps he feared what might happen if it fell into the wrong hands."

Giles was probably right about that and Xander thought it best to underline that. "A fear we'll soon get to experience for ourselves up close and personal."

"U-unless we can preempt their plans."

"How?"

"Uh, by learning what's in the book before they do. Which means we can expect to be here later tonight."

"Goody! Research party!" Oh Willow, that is not the right way to answer something like that.

"Will, you need a life in the worst way. So Dawnie, are you helping as well tonight?"

"Can't. Mom said she'd call in the evenings and if I'm not there when she does I'll be in trouble." She then looked at her watch and appeared shocked when she saw the time. "I'll have to go now actually."

"Speaking of, I really have to bail too, but I promise I'll be back bright and early tomorrow and ready to slay." The other Summers girl said.

"This is a matter of some urgency, Buffy." Right Giles, like that will work.

"I realize that. Well, you have to admit, I kinda lack in the book area. I mean, you guys are the brains, I'd only be here for moral support anyway."

"That's untrue, Buffy, you totally contribute. You go for snacks!" He didn't want to be alone here with the bookpeople! Buffy stay, please! Xander wished but he soon found out that it was a wish he wouldn't be granted.

"She should go. Y-y'know, gather her strength." Willow added her five cents after a look from Buffy. The traitor.

"Perhaps you're right. There may be fierce battles ahead." No Giles, not you too.

A last ditch effort before she left then. "But Ho-Hos are a vital part of my cognitive process!"

"Sorry, Xand. Someplace I have to be." Damn, that hadn't worked either. But where did she have to be? He looked at Giles who only looked back before he then turned to the source of all things Buffy.

"She's going ice-skating with Angel." Dawn told him from where she sat propped up on the table.

"Ice-skating? How do you know?"

"I heard them talking last night. He had snuck into her room while she was doing the patrol thing and when she returned she'd forgotten that I was home. Talking of which, I gotta go as well."

* * *

"Hi Dawn, Sara's already here."

"Good, so what are we gonna watch?" Dawn asked while stepping into the house of her friend.

"We've got a couple of nice movies selected. I'm sure you'll like them."

"Okay." She followed Jane into the parent-less house where Sara was indeed already waiting.

"Hey Dawn. Jane tried to explain it to me but I didn't really understand how you can be here, what with being grounded and all."

"You know my mom is in LA, right?" Her friends nodded, as they should since she had told them that before. "Well, since both she and Buffy aren't home tonight I just switched the telephone through Jane's."

"What do you mean?"

"When mom calls me at home, the telephone will ring here. Which means I'll have to answer all calls and you have to be quiet okay?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Good, let's watch some movies then." And she let herself sink back into the comfy couch. Happy with the fact that once more she was proven smarter than her mother. The knowledge that she was breaking practically every rule of her being grounded wasn't something she paid any attention to.

. . . .

When the sound of the telephone suddenly rang through the room pandemonium broke out. "Put the movie on hold and be quiet." Dawn shouted while running to the phone, waiting with answering it until all was quiet.

"Dawn Summers."

"Dawnie? It's Xander."

"Xander." She said with a smile on her face.

"Oohh, did you hear that Jane? It's his Royal Highness Xander."

"I did hear that, can you see how Dawn is blushing?"

"Shut up." She hissed at her teasing friends.

"What?" Her future husband asked from the other side of the connection.

"Not you Xander, you can say whatever you want. I-I mean, you can talk."

"Can I talk to Buffy?"

Great, make her feel loved. "I told you she's doing the ice-skating thing."

"No, she came back from that when someone tried to kill her."

"When someone tried to what? Is she okay?" Dawn shouted into the phone, immediately silencing her friends who had thought it necessary to give a running commentary on her conversation.

"She's fine and as to what happened, well it's complicated actually. But she isn't home?"

"Ehm, I don't know."

"Dawn?" He asked warily. "Where are you?"

"With a friend?" Okay, it might not have sounded as confident of herself as usual but really, who could expect that when someone had just tried to kill her sister? That was not something she could easily forgive and she felt a little shaken that she hadn't been able to prevent it from happening.

"Oh Dawn." Xander sighed disappointedly. "Do you ever actually do what your mother tells you?"

"Sure, all the time." No, she didn't want her love to be disappointed in her. But she just couldn't stand being locked up and that took precedence here, even if she didn't know why she couldn't deal with it.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Now, that wasn't fair was it? "Although now I that I think about it, it might actually be a good idea for you to stay there. At least it'll be safe."

What? First he's disappointed and now he thinks it's a good idea? But she didn't believe it was a good idea. Hell, she was pretty much certain it wasn't a good idea. "I can't do that. I have to be home before her parents get back or they'll tell mom."

"Dawn, there are assassins after your sister and they'd probably use you as bait if they found you."

"They don't have to know I'm going home. And you don't understand, getting killed only takes a moment. Being grounded is forever."

"I thought it was that being dead was forever." See, that was one of the reasons she loved him so much. He always tried, even when it was obvious he couldn't possibly win.

"Not when it comes to mom, it doesn't."

"Look Dawn, will you please do as I ask you to? It's important to me that you're safe."

"Maybe I could stay at your place then?" When she asked that she could see her friends turning shocked faces to each other.

"Ah, I don't think you'd like to stay there Dawn. But will you please do as I ask?"

"I'll think about it okay? But I won't promise anything." And with that she hung up the phone. Like any two bit assassin wannabe would be able to keep her out of her own house. "So, what are we waiting for? Put the video back on."

Despite the fact that she could almost taste the questions they wanted to ask it seemed like her friends had decided not to actually want to risk posing them. Which was more than okay with her. She needed some time so she would be able to think about those people who thought they could come after her sister and, more importantly, how she could take care of them.

* * *

"I can't believe you. You dragged me out of bed for a ride? What am I, mass transportation?" Did she have to be that difficult now? It was early for him as well, if Giles hadn't called him he'd still be in bed.

"That's what a lot of the guys say, but it's just locker room talk. I wouldn't pay it any mind." Maybe that would shut her up.

"Oh, great, so now I'm your taxi and your punching bag." Or maybe not.

"I like to think of you more as my witless foil, but have it your way." But they had arrived at their destination. There didn't seem to be anyone there, maybe Dawn had actually listened him?

Trying the door didn't get him anything, so he simply decided to shout for Buffy. When that didn't seem to work either he walked to the window.

"C'mon, Cordelia. You wanna be a member of the Scooby Gang you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then."

The brunette didn't seem convinced that was a good enough reason to be dragged out of bed and so answered him with another bout of sarcasm. Not that he really paid any attention to it though.

Finally, he got the window open and stepped through. "Buffy could be in trouble."

"And what if she is exactly? What are you gonna do about it? In case you haven't noticed, you're the lameness and she's the super chick, or whatever." For a moment he debated whether to actually let her inside or not but decided to do it after all.

"Well, at least I'm the lameness who cares, which is more than I can say about you. And besides, Dawn could be in trouble as well and she isn't a super chick."

"I thought you said you told her to stay with a friend?" Cordelia sounded a little worried now, apparently she really did like the little girl although he couldn't imagine what the two of them could possibly have in common.

"I did, but at the moment Dawn seems to live in a world where nothing but her own wishes seem to really matter."

"And what's wrong with that?" Oh yeah, that's what they had in common.

"Never mind, I'll check upstairs. Buffy!"

Walking up the stairs he kept shouting his friend's name until he heard something from behind him. "Don't you think this would draw the attention of the people trying to kill her?"

Turning around he could see Dawn standing there, holding a kitchen knife and dressed only in an overlarge t-shirt. "Uh, hi Dawn. Did I wake you?"

"You can wake me up anytime, you know that." She smiled at him but the normal picture of a cute little girl with tousled hair was kinda ruined by the knife she still held.

"Uh-huh, so what's with the knife?" She blinked and for a moment she looked confused as if she had been thinking of something else, and he really didn't want to know what, before she looked at the knife.

"Oh, that." She uttered a fake laugh. "That's nothing, I was ah, you know about to make myself some breakfast."

"In your room?"

"Ehm, yes?" It was amazing how good she was at turning up the innocent look. So good actually that had he not been subjected to similar looks from Willow over the years he might have actually believed her.

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that people are hunting your sister?"

"NO! You know she has forbidden me to fight."

"Right, let's assume for a moment I believe you. Is Buffy home?"

"No, she never arrived. Don't tell her about the knife please? She'll be angry and would never understand."

"In your own words of last night, I'll think about it. Because I must tell you Dawnie I am disappointed you came home after all."

The crestfallen look on her face almost made him take those words back but he figured the girl needed to learn that sometimes it was actually important to listen to what people told her.

* * *

It just wasn't fair. She liked him, well that was an understatement, but that didn't give him the right to criticize her actions. Dawn watched Xander walk down the stairs before turning back to her room in order to get dressed. She had been ordered, ordered!, to come back with him to the library. Not that she hadn't planned on going there anyway but she did not like being ordered.

At least he wasn't alone, Cordelia would probably help her in letting him know he couldn't tell people what to do. Putting the knife on her desk, with the other five she had taken out of the kitchen last night, she shed the t-shirt and looked for what to wear. Or should she take a shower first? A smile appeared on her face. Why not? Let him wait for her. That should teach him not to try ordering her around.

After a long and relaxing shower she finally went downstairs, half surprised Xander hadn't asked her to hurry up even once. Oh well, Cordelia probably kept him busy. Walking into the living room she couldn't see them, although there was a case of make-up articles. Checking the name on the bag she realized it was probably some salesman who had been invited in by Cordelia. So that's why Xander hadn't come, a grin formed as she realized how the poor guy must have been tortured by having to watch as the older girl undoubtedly had wanted to try everything.

But where were they now? Maybe the kitchen, she walked in that direction while shouting their names when she noticed a man standing before the door to the basement. "Hey! What are you doing there?"

"Dawn! Run! He's one of the assassins!" Was that Xander who shouted? What was he doing in the basement? Then the actual words penetrated her brain. This was one of the people trying to kill her sister. Which meant she had absolutely no intention of running away. Especially since she was carrying the knives she had intended to return to the kitchen.

By the time the man took his first step towards her, the first knife had left her hand, moments later followed by the others. Leaving her only with the knife she still carried from Halloween, the same one she had used for her first real kill. Time seemed to stretch on indefinitely as she noted the flight paths of the knives. Of the six she had thrown, two were clear misses, once again demonstrating her skills weren't yet at the desired level. The other four though would more then compensate for it.

She knew two would impact in his right shoulder, one in his left and the other somewhere between those three. All more or less where she had aimed them and thrown in a way it would be difficult to dodge. Not that he actually tried to, which was surprising but she figured that was due to a slow reaction time. However, when the first knife hit him she found out there was another reason.

"Shit." She wasn't used to being surprised like this in a fight and it once again underlined her hatred for magic. The knife just passed through his body, tearing the man's clothes but, instead of leaving behind a bloody wound, the hole it created was filled up by worms. And that was the moment she decided that running might indeed be the best solution after all.

. . . .

She had run all the way from her house to the Sunnydale Highschool and despite her burning lungs she had no intention of stopping. Bursting through the doors she crossed the hallways on her way to the library. The principal, a man she had met only once before, stuck out his arms in order to stop her but she dove underneath them and with a perfectly executed roll she was back on her feet, not paying any attention to the shouts from the insignificant little man.

She needed help, because for the first time she could remember she had encountered something that she couldn't kill. And that fact scared Dawn far more than anything else could ever do. She had known that it would happen one day, there was no doubt in her mind that despite all the books in the library there had to be some creatures that weren't mentioned in them. But she had hoped that she wouldn't encounter anything like that before she'd actually had the chance to read all the books. Let alone be a little further along in her training.

The library doors. Good, she felt as if she was about to explode from fatigue. Not bothering to stop and open the doors the way they should be she threw all her weight against them, causing her to fall into the room.

"Giles!" She shouted not even bothering to find out if there was anyone else in the room. There were lives at stake here, and not just any lives, the lives of someone she started to think of as a good friend and the one she had a crush on.

"Dawn?"

"Who is dat?" What? Who's the dark girl?

She tried to answer them but she couldn't speak. Getting air inside her body took precedence despite what she wanted to happen. "Xander… Cordelia… Bugman…"

"Calm down Dawn and then tell me what's going on."

"Dis girl knows as well?" The still unknown girl asked. Despite what was going on Dawn started sizing the girl up. The accent indicated she was from the Caribbean, probably Jamaica. She was standing as if she expected the need to start fighting any moment now, and it looked as if she was very proficient in it. More information needed to wait however.

"Xander, Cordelia, my house. Came get Buffy and me. Buffy not there." She was still hardly able to breathe clear enough for her to construct long sentences so she made sure to say as much between the panting as possible. "Was taking shower. Came downstairs. No Xander, Cordelia. Look in kitchen. Saw stranger. Shouting from basement. Xander told run. Tried fight first. Man was worms. Couldn't hurt. Ran. Go help, please."

"You're saying that Xander and Cordelia are trapped inside your basement? And there was someone else there, made of worms? And you came here for help." Giles tried to understand.

"Yes. Go help."

"One of de assassins?" The girl asked Giles.

"I think so yes."

"Who she?" Dawn stammered out.

"Oh yes, you don't know. This is Kendra, the Slayer."

Slayer? But there could be only one? No! "Buffy?"

Giles seemed to understand what she meant. "She's alright. Kendra was called when Buffy died fighting the master." Oh, good. She knew about that, although it didn't explain the girl's presence.

"And who is she?"

"What? Oh, this is Dawn. Buffy's sister."

"She even told her sister?"

"No, Dawn was caught in a spell. Or not caught actually, it's a little complicated and we obviously don't have time for it. We need to…" He was cut off however by the sound of gunfire.

"Buffy!" Dawn shouted, once again standing up in order to run to her sister's aid. One of the assassins was in the school and this one used a gun, which meant it was probably human and could therefore be killed. Before she was even through the doors however, Kendra passed her, obviously a lot faster than she herself was.

* * *

Stepping inside the library Xander asked the question burning on his lips since he had entered the school. "Who sponsored career day today? The British Soccer Fan Association?"

"Xander! You're okay." Dawn shouted as she came running over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "We were just going to save you. How did you get out? Are you hurt? What happened? How did that thing get inside the house?"

"Wow Dawnie, easy. I'm fine, we're both fine. And after you had run we decided to try the same thing."

He decided to ignore the snort from Cordelia that indicated she didn't entirely approve of his summary but he did notice that Dawn released him and looked at the brunette.

"Cordelia? Why are you dripping?"

"Because your hero over there decided a hose was the best way to get the worms away from me. Not that he stopped spraying once they were gone though."

"Yeah, yeah, you've been complaining about that since we left. But I ask again, what happened here?

"We had a, ah rather violent visit from the Order of Taraka." Giles finally told him.

"Oh, yeah I know what that feels like but…" Girl! New girl, pretty new girl. "Hello."

"Oh, forgive me. Uh, Xander, Cordelia, this is Kendra. Uh, i-it's rather complicated, but she's also a Slayer."

"Yeah, it seems as if the Highlander code was broken."

He looked at Dawnie, wondering what she could possibly mean. "Huh?"

"You know, there can be only one? Buffy died and now there can be two. MacLeod never tried that tactic."

"Right." Sometimes it was freaky that the little girl could make references even he had trouble understanding. "Or your sister could have been using it as an attention-getter."

"Just say hello Xander." The blonde Slayer told him.

Right, he'd do that. "Welcome. So! You're a Slayer, huh? I like that in a woman."

"Uh... I hope... I tank you... I mean, sir, um... I will be of service." This beauty was nervous while talking to him? Talk about strange.

Oh well, let's put her a little at ease then. "Great! Good. It's good to be a giver." Okay, maybe not the best words but still a good attempt, even if he said so himself.

"Xander, um, this, this, uh, assassin you encountered, what, uh, what did he look like?"

"Hey, I already told you what he looked like? Don't you believe me?"

"O-of course I do Dawn, but it's better to get a second opinion in these matters."

"You never ask one when Buffy tells you what something looks like, and with her you actually need it!" Oh, a Dawn that feels slighted.

He was distracted from that discussion by Cordelia who found another part of the assassin in her hair and freaked out before shouting something about a shower and running away. The worm however had dropped on the table and he simply pointed to it. "Like that."

"See? I told you it was a guy made of worms." A vindicated Dawn told Giles.

"You and bug people, Xander. What's up with that?" Buffy asked him while ignoring her sister's comments.

"No, this dude was completely different from praying mantis lady. He was a man of bugs, not a man who was a bug." Yep, and more to the point he was a man and therefore totally incomparable to the other situation. Taking the open book the worm was on he slammed it shut, thereby taking care of that.

"The, uh, the important thing is everybody's alright. Still, it's quite apparent that we're under serious attack."

"These Teraka are definitely serious. Fortunately for me, so is Kendra." Huh? Was she here to save Buffy then? Oh no, probably not, but it's better to do the fighting thing together of course.

"And, uh, I fear the worst is still to come. I've, I-I've discovered the remaining keys to Drusilla's cure. The, uh, the ritual requires that, the presence of her sire, and it must take place in a church on the night of the new moon." Oh shit, so that's what this was all about. Wait a minute, Drusilla's sire? There was something about that. He knew who that was but who?

"The new moon. But dat is tonight." Tonight? Why couldn't they ever find out about things when they had at least a week to figure things out?

"Exactly. And I-I'm sure the assassins were here to kill Buffy before she could put a stop to things."

"They need Drusilla's sire. You mean the vamp that made her?" She knew as well didn't she?

"Yes."

"Buffy, what is it?" Willow figured something out as well.

"Angel. He's Drusilla's sire." Oh yeah, now he remembered.

"Of course, that's who it was."

"You knew about that?" Everybody seemed to ask him surprised.

"Yes, he said so during Halloween, remember."

"He did?" Buffy looked confused. "I must have missed that."

"You were probably busy being scared of a car or something." Dawn muttered.

"Hey! I heard that." Buffy told her sister who merely stuck out her tongue. "Will this ritual kill him?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it will."

"We need to find this church. We need to find where this ritual is gonna take place!" Have no fear Angel, Buffy comes to the rescue Xander thought before he suddenly realized something.

"Do you think this is what that Slayer Dream was about, you know, the one you had after Halloween?"

. . . .

"Yeah, yeah, we got monsters, we got demons, but no bug dude or police lady." Was there anything more boring than research? And this was when it was important, well sort of. He had to agree with the new Slayer about what the priority was in this case. The pretty new Slayer, but then, Cordelia was beautiful as well. No! Bad thoughts Xander, that was an accident. People under stress and that sort of thing.

"Well, you should have better luck with this one. There's a whole section devoted to the Order of Teraka." Giles said as he placed another book in front of Xander. Wonderful, another book that looks to be full of boring things.

"Here let me have that, I read faster than you do." Dawn said as she took the book away from him and began reading, well at a speed like that it couldn't really be called reading could it?

It was only a couple of minutes later when the girl spoke up again. "Found it."

Looking over her shoulder he recognized the picture, hey he could have found a picture just as fast, but hurt pride aside he agreed with her that it was indeed the one they were looking for. "Oh, yes here we go! I am the bug man, coo coo ka choo."

The others gathered around as Dawn began to read out loud. "He can only be killed when he's in his disassembled state."

"Disassembled. That means when he's broken down into his liiittle buggy parts." Xander decided to, ah, bug Cordelia.

"I know what it means, dorkhead." She bit back.

"Dorkhead! You slash me with your words!"

The others just looked at the both of them until Dawn asked. "Should I continue or do you want to try and annoy the guy to death?"

* * *

When Kendra entered the library alone Dawn felt a pang of fear, had something happened to Buffy?

Giles apparently had the same idea as he asked her. "Where's Buffy?"

"She is running to save her boyfriend. I believed we needed help but she didn't want to wait."

That figures, somehow Dawn had a feeling that if there was a building somewhere with a giant sign that said 'Trap here, walk this way to get killed in a most unusual manner' that Buffy would be the first to enter.

"I think you were quite right there actually. Although it might have been better if the two of you hadn't split up."

"She would not come with me." And she was right about not wanting to go with Buffy, after all who is willing to walk into so obvious a trap?

"A-alright, we'll need to go after her then. Have you found out which church it is?"

"No, de man he said he would lead Buffy dere."

"Oh, that complicates matters. Willow?" He turned to the redhead that was still busy on the computer.

"I think I know which one it is."

"Good, we'll go there then. Xander, you and Cordelia can deal with the bug creature?" Of course they did, hadn't she just told them what needed to be done?

As Xander indicated that he was indeed able to deal with the creature they decided it was time to go. When Dawn stood up however she was told she couldn't come.

"What? Why not? I can help!"

"No, you are too young to fight." Giles explained.

"But."

"No buts." Geez, he sounded like mom. "That was the deal, remember? You could help with the research but you wouldn't fight."

That wasn't fair, but there was nothing she could do so she watched them walk away from the school until they were out of sight. And then, once again ignoring everything else in favor of the only thing that counted, she followed them.

. . . .

This was annoying. She had followed the group to the church they were going to and had seen Kendra jump inside but there wasn't a good spot for her to look at the fight. The only thing that was obvious to her was that they had been in time to save Buffy from her own foolishness. Which was definitely of the good, of course.

Now if only she could see what was going on inside. But at least it seemed as if part of the plan was going as it should. She could see Cordelia pouring the liquid adhesive that was meant for the bugman all around the doors.

"Hey, larvae boy! Yeah, that's right, I'm talkin' to you, ya big cootie!" Well, not exactly the way she would have tried to get the assassin's attention but from the way Xander exited the church it must have worked.

"Welcome, my little pretties!" Yes, it definitely worked. As Xander and Cordelia began to stomp the little worms crawling out from under the door she circled the church in order to find someplace from where she could look inside. Climbing in a nearby tree she managed to look through the windows. While the colors didn't make what happened inside any clearer she did get a look at what was happening.

Buffy and Kendra were fighting two others. One she recognized from descriptions as the vampire Spike and from the way the woman fought she figured that to be the other assassin. When Buffy then threw Spike away she could see the vampire going after some man, it wasn't someone she recognized but since nobody made a move to save him he probably deserved it.

She looked back at her sister then, only to see her trying to save her boyfriend. After all, that was the reason she was there, wasn't it? Okay, that wasn't really fair since in saving him she also stopped the ritual. Because it just had to be done with magic, didn't it? It was always magic, as if good old-fashioned normality was out of style. Stopping herself from whining she looked around in an attempt to try to see more of the fights. Leaning a little forward in the tree, which she hoped would be able to handle that, Dawn could indeed see Willow and Giles fighting a vampire as well. The little man suddenly ran by them however, drawing her attention back to the rest of the fight.

By then, Buffy was busy trying to free Angel and Spike had come to take Drusilla away. It looked as if there was some talking involved in all that but since she couldn't hear anything that was going on she couldn't be certain. Where was the assassin though? Searching for the woman she could see that Kendra was still working on her until the assassin went flying through the air and crashed into a cabinet. Good work Kendra! She mentally praised the Slayer, now all that the Slayer needed to do was finish the assassin and she would be free to go home before anyone could find out she wasn't there.

But no, she was a Slayer and therefore hesitant about killing people. Ah, Spike was trying to take his girl away but it seemed as if Buffy had no intention of letting that happen. Her sister threw something at the vampire, causing him to crash into the organ which then fell on him. That was one way to handle a vampire. But it had come a little late as he had already managed to set the church on fire. That was not good but as she noticed the others leaving she decided it wasn't enough to stop her.

* * *

She was strong again. Drusilla couldn't stop a smile from forming on her vamped-out face as she relished once more the feeling of power. All she had to do now was get Spike away from here and allow him to get better as well. The moment she planned to do that however she heard the door of the church open again and she froze. Miss Edith had warned her what would happen if she was discovered by this person.

The Green Lady. She had no idea what could be so dangerous about this being especially she didn't even know what it was. The sounds of the footsteps were the same as she'd expect from a human, a short human at that. But she dared not look at who it might be so had to rely entirely on her ears to find out everything she could about this Green Lady with the black hands.

"Who are you?" Came weakly from the last living of the assassins, Patrice she remembered the name to be.

No answer was forthcoming although she could clearly hear both the Green Lady's breathing and her heartbeat.

"You're the professional Norman encountered." Patrice coughed and Drusilla could smell fresh blood. It seemed the Slayers had hurt the assassin more than she had believed. "The Order knows of you now."

That didn't seem to impress the Green Lady however and soon thereafter she heard the sound of a throat being slit and one of the heartbeats disappeared. The only sound she could hear after that was that of someone searching for something, until finally the footsteps retreated and the doors opened one last time.

Drusilla tried to piece together what she knew of this incarnation of Death. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of information she could use. The main thing she knew was that her enemy was short but that was about all she could say, especially since she hadn't said a single word, which meant there was no way she might be able to recognize the voice even if she encountered it again.

With the Green Lady finally out of the still burning church Drusilla dared to move again and walked over to look at Patrice. For some reason she couldn't understand the Green Lady had taken the ring. She then tried smelling to see if she could determine the Green Lady's scent but the overwhelming odor of blood and ashes made even that impossible.

Giving up on that she turned back to where Spike was still lying on the ground and picked him up. "Don't worry, dear heart. I'll see that you get strong again. Like me!" She started walking towards the exit as well. "And when that happens we'll take care of the Green Lady."

* * *

On her way to the library Dawn crossed the halls of Sunnydale Highschool during the next day. When she then suddenly heard the voice of Cordelia coming from a classroom she stopped however, wondering what her friend was doing. "As if! You've probably been planning this for months!"

She had no idea what that was about but as it seemed the girl was talking to Xander she was pretty sure she'd find out. "Right, I hired a Latvian bugman to kill Buffy so I could kiss you. I hate to burst your bubble, but you don't inspire me to spring for a dinner over at Bucky's Fondue Hut."

NO! NO! NO! She must have misheard. It couldn't be true. "Fine! Whatever. You know, the point is: don't try it again!"

"I didn't try it! Forget about the bugs, okay? The memory of your lips on mine makes my blood run cold." It was true, how could they have done this to her? She liked both of them but Xander belonged to her, not Cordelia.

"If you dare breathe a word of this..." At least it seemed as if neither of them wanted this to continue. She could forgive them then and she started breathing more easily again. It had probably just happened when they were under stress and everyone knew that kind of thing never lasted, yes that was it so there was no need for her to worry.

"Like I want anyone to know!" See? It wasn't all that bad.

"Then it's erased!"

"Never happened!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

"Good!" That last good had sounded very final the way Cordelia had said it so Dawn was pretty certain one or both of them would soon be leaving the room and she might as well wait for them. When that didn't happen however a feeling of impending doom came over her and she decided to go and take a look inside.

NOOOOO!!!!!! Tears welled up in her eyes at the sight before her. The two teens were locked in a passionate embrace and hadn't even noticed her opening the door.

Having no more need to be tortured this way Dawn turned around and fled the school. Why had this happened? Xander had been the only positive thing to come out of Halloween and now this… Why? It wasn't fair. She felt like stomping her feet like a little kid but managed to control that impulse. How come the universe hated her so much? Was it something she had done? If so there must be a way to turn it around.

Maybe she should kill Cordelia? No, tempting as that thought was, the chances of Xander then falling in love with her didn't improve. But surely there had to be a way for her to get his attention? Mireille might have actually had some ideas about how to go about that but Kirika had been even more innocent than she herself was. Ask Buffy for help? Yeah, right. Maybe mom? Not while she was still grounded since her mother would want to know how she knew about the two of them.

No, while it was possible that time would provide an answer until that happened she might as well continue with her master plan. Yeah, because that one was still useful. Half of the entries were about that cheating… No, she couldn't even claim he was cheating since he had never even thought of her that way.

There was another way to deal with this, for the second time in less then a week the seducing voice in her head spoke of the emotionless state that would be so comforting. But dare she take that option? The dangers connected to it were after all very high.

Yes, she dared…

As her emotions became more and more repressed she felt peaceful in a way she had not even achieved while dealing with Ethan Rayne. No, this was how that state was supposed to be. Back then the hatred had interfered with the feeling but now everything was as it should be. Looking out through her slitted eyes she felt the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips as she fondled the ring she carried in her pocket. That too was something she might need to deal with soon and she was almost looking forward to it. For a moment she felt her minds in total agreement once more and she raised her fist to her heart. Extending two fingers she then whispered the mandate she had been born to.

"Noir, it is the name of an ancient fate…"

---------------------------------

Post-fic comments: Thanks to everyone again for reading and reviewing. Remember, the things you tell me are important to the rest of the series. I always read them all and if I see something that sparks an idea I'll probably use it.

Don't worry about this being the last story either. I already have a number of other stories in this series planned so it's far from over.


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